Press Releases

Transport emissions in the EU’s Member States keep rising. If the EU is serious about achieving the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C objective, European transport policies must radically change. The report, published today by the Unify project partners, assesses transport policies of the EU and five of its member States, and makes recommendations to bring transport policies in line with the Paris Agreement.

Central and Eastern European countries need to set national coal phase-out dates by 2030 at the latest in order to fall in line with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, environmental campaigners write. (This article is written in the framework of the Unify and the EUKI project "Building capacity for multi-stakeholder cooperation on long-term climate planning").

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) provides member states a large-scale financial support for public investments and reforms to support the relaunching of ailing economies in the short term, but also the creation of more sustainable and resilient societies for the future. To do so, RRF funding must also be allocated to address the other, […]

Comprehensive revision and implementation of Member States’ National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP) will play a key role in achieving higher climate and energy ambition in the EU by 2030. While NECPs still need to be updated in order to be aligned with and implement the EU’s higher climate and energy ambition, it is still […]

The EU’s post-2022 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will play a crucial role in tackling the climate crisis. While the trilogues are ongoing between the EU legislators, Member States have already started developing their national CAP Strategic Plans. Unify project partners assessed five Member States’ draft Strategic Plans. The report reveals that the national Strategic Plans would require serious revisions, if the Member States are to deliver their climate, energy and biodiversity objectives under the European Green Deal.

Member States are currently developing their plans on how to spend the EU’s long-term budget 2021-2027, together with its recovery instrument (Next Generation EU). Unify project partners and CAN Europe members assessed 16 Member States’ draft spending plans to see whether they live up to the Green Deal promises and put over 50 “good, bad and ugly” measures included in those draft plans to a public vote. Europeans have voted for the top measures that should be replicated, the biggest missed opportunities to be urgently addressed and the ugliest projects that should be scrapped. 

Member States are currently developing their EU funds spending plans to demonstrate to the European Commission how they are going to use the unprecedented amounts of EU budget and recovery funds. A campaign launched by Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, under the Unify project, identifies climate and environmental friendly and harmful practices that 13 Member States and regions plan to finance from the EU’s purse.

New analysis of national plans, policies and measures in six Central and Eastern European countries, reveals inadequate action to tackle energy poverty. The report, prepared by NGOs and researchers across Europe, finds that Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia have failed to provide a clear definition of energy poverty in their national plans, a bare minimum required by the EU.

A new briefing published today by the Unify project partners across Europe underlines the importance of a climate- friendly Common Agriculture Policy to ensure that the agriculture sector contributes to the objectives of the European Green Deal and the EU’s commitments under the Paris Agreement. This document, coming out during the trialogue negotiations between the […]

A new report published under Unify project identifies concrete investment proposals as listed in National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP) of 14 Member States to be funded in order to ensure a green recovery. The report titled “EU Funds for a Green Recovery”, comes right after the president of the European Council Charles Michel’s proposal to increase the climate spending target of EU funds from 25% to 30%, and makes it clear that if the EU funds are used wisely, they could both ensure a green recovery and boost climate ambition.

A new report published today by the Unify project partners, Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe and ZERO, looks into the final National energy and Climate Plans of 15 Member States and indicates that a number of countries made some improvements in their final NECPs, both in terms of targets and of policies and measures. However, these improvements are not enough to catalyse the energy transition required to achieve the long term objective of the Paris Agreement.

The new briefing published by Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe underlines the importance of aligning Europe’s long term strategies to fight the climate crisis with the proposed financial measures.

Transitioning to climate neutrality requires bold long-term investments in clean energy infrastructure. And public and private investments into energy efficiency and renewable energy are key to ensuring a sustainable economic recovery out of the current crisis. However, a new report shows how little EU countries use existing EU regional development funds for this purpose. With the EU budget best placed to support the sustainable economic recovery, Member States must make climate action a much bigger priority of future EU funds spending.

The Estonian Government decided to allocate 125 million EUR in aid to the state-owned company Eesti Energia for the construction of a shale oil plant. This decision is irresponsible in light of the ongoing pandemic, Estonia’s future and EU’s climate goals.

A Consortium of 11 NGOs across the EU are proud to announce the official launch of “Unify: Bringing the EU together on Climate Action” project which aims to show the potential to increase climate ambition in three key policy processes:  programming for the use of EU funding at the national level, National Energy and Climate […]